Noob learning the importance of sifting through the woodpile.

[Kosmik]

Got my pine in 2 loads.
The cutter was saying some was a year old, some this spring (mixed together).

Well, been powering through a half cord of semi-seasoned and saying to myself , "this is harder than hell to keep the secondaries going without running at least half throttle, then sometimes it just takes off. WTF!"
Was using most recent drop for wood, LIFO.
Decided to try the otherside, that I wasn't paying attention to when stacking...

Low and behold, I saw some yr old pine, some bettle kill, some trees that were fallen/standing deadwood.

Suffice to say, I can get the stove hot again, secondaries going, and I'm packing foil into opening to keep stove temps in my comfort level (not that I have great draft, but when it starts lighting off the gases and getting hot...). No problems starting, if anything gotta be right there to throttle her down, taking off so fast.

Any other noobs out there with similar problems, try finding that dry stuff (if it's there) for this cold weather. Power through the other stuff in Spring. Night and day difference in heat output when you don't have to keep running the air control open to keep a flame.
That's my plan at least.

I have other minor issues (draft, piping, ect.), but when the fuel is good, the stove works fine. Really learning the importance of dry wood in these things.

 

[Buck 27000]

Why would you choose pine to burn???????

 

[Kosmik]

I live in Colorado. 1/3 of the state is covered with it. Our hardwoods are usually only found in the Eastern part of the state, near the rivers, or Denver/Boulder (introduced in early 1900's).

Pinon Pine is supposed to store the most out of all the pines, similar to hardwood, (I don't have any), but that is about the most dense we got in this part of The Rocky Mountains. We also have RM Juniper...

But by far and wide the most available is assorted lower btu/cord pines.

It's the 'Tragedy of Alpine Life':
God's punishment for letting one live in such a beautiful place.
The coldest places, have the softest wood

 

[Buck 27000]

It's has poor btu's and very high in creators!

 

[Kosmik]

I know, but in these parts that is the fuel. It's my first year also, so didn't have time to hoard.
Hardwoods are like a luxury for the rich to burn, or the not so rich to use for the overnight burn.

My problem was bad wood and bad operator.
I'm now picking the dry stuff out of the stacks, piece by piece and bought two thermometers because the 'hand test' was very inaccurate and caused me to burn too low.
Really caused me to not let the flue heat up enough, which caused me some headache when I checked my pipes after 3.5 wks of operation.

I'd offer to take some hardwood off your hands, but you're a little far.

I'll be making some trips to the lowlands this spring/summer...See what hardwoods I can scrounge up.

 

[BurnIt13]

Why would you choose pine to burn???????

Because pine is awesome. It lights quick, seasons quick, leaves zero ash, and is very controllable.

You aren't going to tell me it causes creosote are you?

 

[owingsia]

Because pine is awesome. It lights quick, seasons quick, leaves zero ash, and is very controllable.

You aren't going to tell me it causes creosote are you?

Look up I think he did already!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yup, Buck 27000 is a hater of pine. No doubt has heard all the old wives tales about how pine will burn your house down. It is not true and many people enjoy burning pine and so far, that is all I've cut this winter! Nothing wrong with pine so long as you do like is necessary with any other wood; give it time to dry then burn it. The fires may not last as long but it will give you good heat while it is burning.

Kosmik, you will learn as you go and it will get better.

 

[Bagelboy]

Got about a cord of pine together with my other wood this year. I've never burned pine, but I'm inspired by what I've read by pine burners. I'll let it go til the fall, in fact, I could put another cord together, but I am guessing it burns twice as fast as other wood. Is this the case?

 

[Doug MacIVER]

It's has poor btu's and very high in creators!

basically pine or oak or whatever you burn has the same btu/lb. pine just is not as dense as oak ect.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Got about a cord of pine together with my other wood this year. I've never burned pine, but I'm inspired by what I've read by pine burners. I'll let it go til the fall, in fact, I could put another cord together, but I am guessing it burns twice as fast as other wood. Is this the case?

It will burn faster but not twice as fast. As Doug stated, you get the same btu per pound of wood no matter what you burn. Of course, dry pine is not too heavy but neither are many other woods.

 

[Kosmik]

Yeah Savage.
I had the perfect storm.
'seasoned wood' from the dealer (picked from the back, not the first. Now I'm cherry picking, half of its dry.)
No thermometer, so I was firing too low.

But, at least I didn't postpone the sweep longer than 4 weeks. Catching it early, taking measures.
Changed out all the single wall to 6" , obtained two mag thermos, got the creosote conditioning powder, got driest wood in my pile, got the right stove cement and the silicone cement for the removable/inspection gaps...
Getting moisture meter next month.
Getting wood stacked this spring.

And be combing the forest floor for my $10/cord wood gathering permit. The other reason to burn pine.
If you're willing to do the work, CO allows you to gather 10 cords dead/problem wood for $100. Since we have so much BLM and NF, that is just going up in smoke anyway...

Fun Fact: The tree clearing in NF and BLM feeds the pellet mills in CO.

But this stove puts out waaaayyyy more heat than that old Quad pellet stove ever did.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Such a shame. Even here in MI we used to be able to get up to 10 cord free so long as it was down. Then they started charging $10 for the permit and it has just went up from there. No limits on the amount of permits one can get though.

 

[Buck 27000]

Here in West by God Virginia the pine is very sappy, now all of our oaks hickory and chestnuts don't take as long to season as the pine does no one around here will take the time needed to season pine witch means if ur burning pine here it's not seasoned witch is where the old wives tale comes in pine puts out more creasote because it doesn't season as fast as the hardwoods do, so in that aspect it causcreasote in our stoves. So with it not being able to provide the extended burn times it's just not a valued tree here it's not worth the work. And there is no way pine has the same btus as hardwoods that's crazy!!lol

 

[NH_Wood]

The point about BTU is by weight - a pound of pine and a pound of oak have similar BTU - pine is just not as dense, so it takes more volume to produce the same BTUs. Your sappy WV pine is just fine and will dry quickly - try it and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. And if no one wants it in your area, more for you. Cheers!

 

[Buck 27000]

So it means more trips to the stove? And hardwoods is more plentiful I'll stick with the hard wood!

 

[NH_Wood]

So it means more trips to the stove? And hardwoods is more plentiful I'll stick with the hard wood!

Yes - it does mean that. I have mostly hardwoods too, but having some pine means I can save the better wood for colder temps. No need to work pine if you don't want to, but some of the problems mentioned just aren't true. Cheers!

 

[MrWhoopee]

Oddly enough, because of the resin content, the BTU/lb. for many conifers is higher than many hardwoods.

See Table 1 on page 2.
(broken link removed)

Of course, BTU/cord is a whole nother matter.

 

[Woody Stover]

dry pine is not too heavy but neither are many other woods.

So it means more trips to the stove?

The most plentiful wood here is Red/Black Oak but now that we're back to normal temps outside, I'm back to the "softwood" stack; Just loaded up with Red Maple and Cherry--BTU not all that much higher than Pine. I'll leave the air open a bit, and it'll be ready to re-load in about six hours. If someone will be around to re-load, no problem. Try to burn down a load of Oak coals so you can re-load...better start early, it's gonna be a while.

 

[Doug MacIVER]

this should answer the questions http://woodheat.org/firewood.html

 

[Woody Stover]

this should answer the questions http://woodheat.org/firewood.html

I'd like to see some of that Rock Elm. Looks like its native range is mainly north of us, or south in TN, but there appears to be a small area pretty close to here. Hmmm....

 

[stephiedoll]

Picked up a load of these, old barn beams I think. Put one in 8"X8"X16". 4 hours later the stove was still at 500F.

 

[Buck 27000]

The fact of it is you need a lot more pine plus you need more room for storage to equal the btu's locust and oak put out hence pine is more work

 

[Kosmik]

This picture here is pretty representative of what it looks like for most of the Rocky Mountians (NM through Canada)...
Pretty much all you see is Pine, Fir and Aspen. Makes for great Fall and Winter scenery, though.


A little different than Appalachia.

 

[Kosmik]

If you want hardwoods out here, and you don't have a local woodlot growing them, you're trucking it a minimum of 100mi (if you can find it in Denver, plus they charge you more than twice what pine costs)...

Pine is all around.

So out here, pine is easier.

Pinon Pine (smells great, high BTU) and RM Juniper are probably the highest BTU found west of the Front Range and east of Paonia.
Not just weather, but elevation, work against you too. Very few species of 'hardwoods' survive above 7,000 ft.